Description

Kavinsky is an action game based around the 2013 studio album OutRun by the French electronic musician Kavinsky. The album itself is named after the 1986 SEGA racing game OutRun. As his electro music is influenced by the video games and television cop shows of that era, the game has the same eighties vibe and aesthetics accompanied by the artist's music. The protagonist of the game is also Kavinsky himself and it set in downtown Los Angeles.

The game consists of eight levels and at the launch of the game four were available for the PC versions and six for the mobile versions. Levels have different gameplay mechanic based on three game types. The first type of level is a side-scrolling beat'em up reminiscent of the Streets of Rage games. Kavinsky travels through a street and needs to beat up thugs and a boss at the end. He can be moved around and has two types of attacks: a punch and a kick. Health can be replenished by picking up items such as cigarettes. Some of these are hidden in objects such as trashcans that need to be destroyed. Attacks fill up a combo meter. Once full, a blue glow appears around the character and his attacks become stronger. When it is kept up, a powerful special move with a series of punches and kicks is performed. Combo can also be activated by picking up a dirty magazine. At the end of the level there is a tougher boss. In these levels there are three types of perspectives: a 3D view with a fixed camera somewhere between a side view and over the shoulder, a fixed 3D sideview, and a retro 16-bit render with scanlines. The latter can also be activated by standing in front of a Kavinsky arcade machine. Then it becomes possible to play the entire level as seen from an arcade machine screen. There are two levels of this variant in the game.

The second type of level is a driving game. Kavinsky drives his iconic sports car through an environment where thugs chase him and cops attempt to stop him. He has to drive through roadblocks and catch the checkpoints before time runs out OutRun-style. Additional time can be acquired by picking up certain items. Hitting the sides of the road slows down the car. There are multiple perspectives in this racing mode and there are two levels of this variant in the game. On mobile devices players can choose between on-screen arrows to steer or using the accelerometer/gyroscope.

The third type of level is only available to mobile versions of the game. It is a beat'em-up level similar to the first type and with the same gameplay mechanics, but seen from a top-down perspective. In this game mode Kavinsky needs to defend his car against thugs that attempt to beat it up. If his car is destroyed, the level is lost. This game mode relies on an augmented reality mode to play the game against any background in the player's own environment. Tilting the device is then used to look around in the environment.